ACT 4: SOUNDBORDERSFEB 19 - 25, 2016 EXHIBITION: TANJA SCHLANDER THE BRIDGE RADIO THE DEMOCRACY PROJECT LOUISE VIND NIELSEN

OPENING:Friday 19. Februar19.00 - 24.00

EXHIBITION: Saturday to Sunday 20. - 21. Feb 12.00 - 16.00 Tuesday to Thursday 22. - 25. February 16.00 - 19.00

Gängeviertel / Raum linksrechts Valentinskamp 37, 20355 Hamburg

THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS:Friday to Sunday 26. - 28. February WORKSHOPS: 27. February Kampnagel, Jarrestraße 20, Hamburgwww.refugeeconference.net

RADIO FSK / THE PERFEKT RADIO Thursday 4. February 14.00 - 16.0093.0 mHz FM in Hamburg www.fsk.hh.org/livestream

Migration, the human transgression of visible and invisi­ble borders, will be investigated through the sound based works of The Bridge Radio, Tanja Schlander, Louise Vind Nielsen and The Democracy Project in this fourth ACT of Radikal Unsichtbar.

Like fingernails on a chalkboard the recordings screech and moan. Dragging contact mics along both sides of the wall that separates Jerusalem and Abu Dis Copenhagen­based artist Tanja Schlander creates a disturbing portrait of the border putting the question: How can we listen through the walls we build?

“If the sea could talk” is the title of an essay by the artist Dady de Maximo and is one of the podcasts by The Bridge Radio, an independent radio project in Denmark created by people with and without citizenship, who produce radio about migration, asylum and people’s movements.

What is democracy and do we need democracy? The Demo cracy Project presents a series of interviews with asy­lum seekers and migrants in Denmark giving their view on democracy. The project is initiated by Trampoline House in Copenhagen with activist and asylum seeker Kipanga.

“I am positive, you are negative.” The sound and video work explores the floating state in between positive (residency) and negative (rejection) and ideas of freedom of movement. The project is a result of a long term collaboration between Hamburg­based artist and activist Louise Vind Nielsen and refugees and migrants based in Copenhagen.

Radikal Unsichtbar ACT 4: SOUNDBORDERS is presented in collaboration with The International Conference of Refu-gees and Migrants in Kampnagel, Radio FSK (Freies Sender Kombinat), Raum Linksrechts in Gängeviertel, and is kindly supported by Nordic Culture Fund and Danish Art Council.

The Bridge radio is an independent radio pro­ject created by people with and without citi­zenship, who produce radio about migration, asylum and people’s movements. The Bridge Radio strive to support self­organization among people who live without citizenship and to create a wide group of reporters and radio artists.

The Bridge Radio was initiated in Trampoline House in Copenhagen as a protest against the repressive migration regime in EU. Today, politicians and the media talk about border and migration issues, but it is rarely presented from the perspective of those taking the jour­ney or experiencing the system themselves.

We find it essential never to keep silent about what is happening at the EU borders, in places of detention and in the asylum system. Only by raising our voices, changes can happen!

In this podcast we are exploring questions about borders in communities. Who are members? How do you become member? Where is the border? Can there be community without borders?

In the soundpiece, the types of communities are not defined and the ex­ploration therefore evolves into a more abstract idea of what a community might be; smaller collectives and great scale communities such as the na­tion state.

The soundpiece was produced in june 2015 during Ljudskolan (The sound school) in Siggalycke, Sweden. Read more about the Soundschool: ljudskolan.tumblr.com. The illustration is an aquarelle by Berlin-based artist Paula Bulling.

The

Brid

ge R

adio

Community Borders

The Bridge Radio

Absolute silence, interrupted by shallow breathing

Of this long talk spoken in his unique voice in order to tell me more and help me to understand or guide me so that I can write it, the only thing which I cannot forget is his absolute silence, interrupted by shallow breath­ing. My friend inspired me with this sentence: ”If the sea could talk.” So I thought long and hard to find something to write, because I would not have the courage to take up a pen to write his testimony. Even if I did, I cannot write until the end because the horror he survived is so difficult to describe or to find the words to explain.

The only thing I can mention here, is that he survived when the boat sank. He doesn’t remember how much time he spent in the water. But he re­members that the water was so cold, and he remembers the corpses of his comrades around him, some with babies on their back. Some were swim­ming without knowing which direction to take because they couldn’t see the land; there was the chance of being discovered by a police patrol boat, but by the time it arrived to their location, most of them had died. The police rescued him miraculously and after that he wasn’t able to move his body. It was too cold.

Each has his or her own history and memories

Crossing walls covered with barbed wire; crossing the sea in unseaworthy boats; traveling clandestine or in containers without air. Every day, refugees and migrants risk their lives in the world, every day in a desperate quest to find safety and a better life.

Behind the dramatic headlines and shocking images of human migration that are broadcast in the media are stories of individual courage, tragedy and compassion. Although refugees and migrants use the same routes and the same modes of transport, and share the same history and the same name as refugees, each and everyone has his or her own history and memories.

Some want to join their family members and others are fleeing persecution, conflict or indiscriminate violence occurring in their country. This is why many undertake such travel at the risk of their lives and are forced to travel in inhumane conditions to finally escape war and persecution.

We have to be aware that the number will increase. I do not have the solu­tion, but together we can find a solution; today it is them, and tomorrow, who knows? Today it is them who risk their lives to find safety and a place to live, but who knows about tomorrow?

Dady De Maximo is an Rwandan artist, journalist and fashion designer based in Copenhagen. In the podcast, he reads the article aloud. The original article can be accessed through VisAvis, www.visavis.dk/2013/02/if-the-sea-could-talk/

Based on the essay written by the artist Dady De Maximo (originally brought in VisAvis) the podcast brings testemonies of people who all through different routes have crossed the Mediterranean Sea.

Imagine if the sea could talk. Unfortunately it is impossible, but if possible this would be the time to lend our ears to different sounds, cries and songs but also to the many testimonials filled by the endless cries of distress.

The journey ends in tragedy

I had the time to talk with a friend who has survived in the sea when the boat that brought him to Europe sank. Fortunately, he was rescued by the police but many of his comrades perished in the sea. We cannot imagine what these refugees endure during this long journey that often ends in trag­edy. These people who decided to leave their home country to finally live free and happy without war, torture, or persecution. Their dreams die with them.

The testimony of my friend is like an endless cry. For me it is a pain which touches a bottom of the bottom. The way he spoke to me of this story re­minds me of these gesticulations which I cannot interpret – and indeed even actors cannot enter into the scenario and play this role better than someone who has lived this horrible story in order to pay tribute to missing people and tell us what happens every day at the sea.

In late 2015, the Bridge Radio correspondents Naser Abdullah, Henri Barbara and Mohammed Baba made a reportage in Sjælsmark depor­tation camp, which is located in Allerød close to center Sandholm. Two of the correspondents are living in this old military building, which the former government decided to use for asylum­seekers, which cases have been rejected by the danish authorities. The departure center is intended to “motivate” people to leave the country through different motivational measures, but in effect many people are leaving the cent­er going underground or stay in the center in degrading conditions.

Right now residents of Sjælsmark deportations camp are mobilizing and protesting outside the camp about the conditions of the camp and the violations of human rights, which they are suffering from, such as being forced to stay in Denmark, having their asylum­right denied and having no right to work.

Follow the Bridge Radio in order to listen to the next episodes and follow the struggle of the residents in Sjælsmark on Facebook: Castaway Souls of Sjæls-mark, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1729179573981631/?fref=ts

In this podcast we are in the detention camp, Opatovac im Croatia, close to the Serbian border. Through interviews with people in the detention camp and our experiences there, we are trying to understand what is taking place. How can we begin to understand these spaces of detention and registration constructed in the EU borderspaces?

“The creation of a permanent state of emergency and exception has become one of the essential practises of contemporary national states.” So writes the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, who understands the current politi­cal situation as a permanent state of willed exception. “Only because the camps constitute a space of exception (...) in which not only is law com­pletely suspended but fact and law are completely confused ­ is everything in the camp possible. Whoever entered the camp moved into a zone of in­distinction between outside and inside, exception and rule, licit and illicit, in which the very concepts of subjective rights and juridical protection no longer made any sense.” Giorgio Agamben in “The camp as the Nomos of the modern”

This podcast is the first in a series of collective explorations into the detention, reg-istration and mechanisms of control constructing the European borderspaces, if you want to be part of this collective research, feel free to contact the bridge radio.

Sjælsmark reportage Voices from detention #1: Opatovac

The

Brid

ge R

adio

The

Brid

ge R

adio

The

Brid

ge R

adio

If the sea could talk

I am positive you are negative, Louise Vind Nielsen (2016)

They call it “positive” and “negative” / They say you can’t sleep / They say that everything feels unreal / As if you where floating / They say it makes you crazy / That it will kill you slowly / “Negative” means that your asylum case has been rejected / “Positive” means that you have got a residency in Denmark / I met you as you are / As the person you are / We were worth the same / We were both human beings / But when I visited you / In the camp where you live / It got clear / That there is a difference / I am worth more than you / I have a Danish identity number / You are a numbered asylum seeker / I am positive / And you are negative

I am positive you are negative, Louise Vind Nielsen (2016)

The sound and video based work explores the floating state in between positive (residency) and negative (rejection) and ideas of freedom of movement. The project is a result of a long term collaboration between Hamburg-based artist and activist Louise Vind Nielsen and refugees and migrants based in Copenhagen.

The Democracy Project, Trampoline House with Kipanga Typeson (2015­16)

What is dem

ocracy, what is your experience

with dem

ocracy, do we need dem

ocracy and how

should it be? The D

emo cracy Project

presents a series of interviews w

ith asylum

seekers and migrants in D

enmark giving their

view on dem

ocracy. The project is initiated by

Trampoline H

ouse in Copenhagen w

ith activist and asylum

seeker Kipanga.

Tramp

oline H

ouse is an ind

epend

ent com

munity

center in Co

penhag

en that pro

vides refug

ees and

asylum seekers in D

enmark w

ith a place o

f supp

ort,

com

munity, and

purp

ose. Fo

ur days a w

eek, the ho

use offers d

ifferent classes and activities, leg

al co

unseling, and

friendship

with the aim

of b

reak-ing

the social iso

lation and

sense of p

ow

erlessness that m

any refugees and

asylum seekers exp

erience. Tram

po

line Ho

use bring

s tog

ether asylum seekers

and D

anish citizens, refugees and

other resid

ents o

f Denm

ark, united b

y a desire to

imp

rove the co

n-d

itions fo

r asylum seekers and

refugees. W

e mad

e an interview

with M

orten G

oll, w

ho is o

ne of the co

-fo

unders o

f the Tramp

oline H

ouse and

initiators o

f “T

he Dem

ocracy P

roject”.

How

did “the Dem

ocracy Project” come into being?

Morten G

oll: Trampoline H

ouse is founded on the knowledge

that democracy is the key to equality, m

utual respect and the freedom

to become w

ho you want to be. Th

e democracy that

we w

ant to create is a most am

bitious form: the kind that you

can feel in your body and mind w

hen you join a crowd. A

ny dem

ocracy is in a constant state of erosion, and we should be

judged, not by how perfect w

e are, but by our ability to look at ourselves, look at our relations, look at the the w

ay power cor­

rupts, look at the way our traditions becom

e forms of oppres­

sion, and by our will pow

er to change our ways in the pursuit

of democracy.

The Tram

polin House is on a daily basis striving for a dem

o­cratic practice in all our relations. Th

e workshops are an at­

tempt to get a bird´s eye view

on things. The interview

s in the m

ovie is the first step in a proces. Since we com

e from differ­

ent worlds it is im

portant to understand each others starting points in the discussion.

Why is it im

portant to talk about democracy today?

In most dem

ocratic countries the connection between the

people and their political representatives have been broken. Th

e result is that we loath our politicians, because they don’t

seem to listen, or w

hen they seem to listen w

e see them run­

ning as the rear guard in a mob. But w

e cannot blame the

politicians alone for this. It is the responsibility of the peo­ple to inform

them, and w

hen we fail to do that, w

e cannot blam

e them for running around like headless chicken. Th

us, the cure that w

ill save our democracies is a strong netw

ork of grassroots and N

GO

’s. Our politicians need new

ideas, and if w

e fail to produce, we w

ill never learn that democracy can be

more than the dictatorship of the m

ajority.

Why is it im

portant that asylumseekers, refugees and m

i-grants tell about their experiences w

ith democracy?

They are citizens of Tram

poline House, so of course w

e need their voices. Th

e Danish D

emocracy have for a num

ber of years kept part of its population in cam

ps with the intent of

isolating them from

the general population. If we do not ask

for their help to restore democracy, w

e will have absolutely no

change of succeeding.

Where are the w

omen? W

hy do you think no wom

en par-ticipated in the video interview

s?

Good question! W

e definitely should have had wom

en among

the interviewees. H

ere is a few possible explanations. Th

ere are few

er wom

en from the cam

ps in Trampoline H

ouse, partly because there are few

er wom

en than men in the cam

ps. Also

I suspect that our film crew

did not have access to Wom

en´s C

lub, being male them

selves.

How

will the project continue?

The project has tw

o parallel tracks: The biggest track is the

daily exercise of democracy, w

hich will go on, influenced by

the critical knowledge that the sm

aller track produces. The

smaller track is the tw

o movies, produced by people of Tram

­poline H

ouse about democracy. Th

is track also produce work­

shops about the relation between dem

ocracy and religion, dem

ocracy in the family, dem

ocracy at the nation level and dem

ocracy in Trampoline house. Som

e of these have already been executed.

Mo

rten Go

ll (b. 1964) o

ne of the co

-found

ers and current executive

directo

r of the Tram

po

line Ho

use. Go

ll is a socio

-po

litically engag

ed

artist, wo

rking w

ith social p

latform

s for p

olitical chang

e. He ho

lds an

MFA

from

the Ro

yal Danish A

cadem

y of Fine A

rts (1994) and an M

FA

from

Otis C

olleg

e of A

rt and D

esign (1999).

Kip

anga Typ

eson (b

. 1989) is a Co

penhag

en-based

activist and co

-fo

under o

f the Dem

ocracy P

roject. H

e has finally g

ot resid

ency in D

enmark after fi

ve years of strug

gle to

get asylum

. He is active in

many g

roup

s wo

rking fo

r better co

nditio

ns for refug

ees and asylum

seekers in D

enmark.

I went to A

bu Dis, to the w

all that separates Israel from

Palestine, or vice versa, and recorded it from

both sides, at the exact same point, w

ith a con-tact m

icrophone normally used for sem

i acoustic instrum

ents. By m

oving the microphone along

the wall it catches the texture of the surface.

Each side had a distinct sound that was very

different from the other. O

ne side was scream

-ing, alm

ost crying, whereas the other had a far

more scrubbing sound. Like an itching and bub-

bling engine, I was surprised. I had thought that

they would sound the sam

e. Indeed I was w

rong.

Abu Dis, Tanja Schlander (2009)

How can a dialogue take place through a wall? Tanja Schlander’s recordings screech and moan. Like fingernails on a chalkboard the isolated sounds elicit a physiological response. Schlander drags contact microphones, ordinar­ily used to amplify vibrations of mate­rial, along either side of the wall that separates Abu Dis and Jerusalem. The audio installation creates a challenging portrait of the border and highlights how difficult it is to listen through the walls we build.

Tanja Schlander (b. 1974) is a Danish sound artist and performer. She received her BFA at the Jutland Academy of Arts and studied to receive her Masters degree from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. In her performance based work she uses the medium of sound to adress political and feminist topics e.g. in her work Kussen (The cunt) where she performs with a condensor microphone up her vagina creating a pow-erful noisescape using the sounds of the female body interiour. In her collaboration with the artist Rona Yefman Schlander has re-enacted the character Pippi Longstock-ings - The strongest girl in the world! Dressed as Pippi Longstockings she tries to remove the wall between Jerusalem and Abu Dis in the video-performance work with the same name. Schlander has run her own radio station, Radio Magica - the sound of humans on 102,9 FM in Copenhagen, and her sound based works has been broadcast of DR (The Danish broadcast cooperation) and ex-hibited internationally. Schlander lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark where she is pursuing a career in Reflexology.

RADIKAL UNSICHTBARCentre for Collective Learning

and Radical Listening

unsichtbar.netRadikal Unsichtbar is a series of public workshops, lectures, writings and collective exhibitions focussing on contemporary sound art and the act of listening in relation to community and society. Radikal Unsichtbar will consist of six ACTS. Central for every ACT is a workshop conducted by sound artists based in Scan-dinavia. The collective workshop process is exhibited among related works by local artists. Radikal Unsicht-bar is based in Raum Linksrechts in Gängeviertel, Hamburg throughout 2015-16.